Sordid Envelopment
by Von Gentleman
Summary: Ghetsis and Colress have been caught by the authorities and are being held in prison. The scientist's insecurities are triggered. Warnings: Some things may be construed as antigravityshipping subtext, but not necessarily.


**Title:** Sordid Envelopment

**Author:** Von Gentleman

**Rating:** T

**Author's notes:** This is pretty much the only pokémon fic I wrote that's based off of events in the anime. It takes place after the conclusion of the Episode N arc, so there are some potential spoilers if you haven't seen it. As for warnings… subtext, perhaps, of the antigravityshipping (Ghetsis/Colress) variety, but it could be over-looked if you are not into shipping.

**SORDID ENVELOPMENT**

"No, no! Don't touch me! Get your hands off of me!" echoed the loud protestations that were just a bit further down the hall that flickered with dying fluorescent lighting.

Ghetsis expected to hear the shouts. He knew his scientist would be having difficulty with their unfortunate turn of events; and that it was only the beginning. The sage closed his eyes when he heard the sound of handcuffs being used and the cursing between the officers as he heard Colress struggle more, get louder, and try to kick his way out of the restraining clutches of the police.

It was no use, of course. After the struggle ceased, he heard multiple pairs of footsteps make their way down the hall and stop in front of the cell that Ghetsis had begun to pace around. It was relatively solitary with no easy way to see who was outside the cell, though it was obvious to the long-haired man who was out there.

The door opened and his scientist was shoved unceremoniously in, door closing abruptly behind him. With his hands cuffed behind his back and his hair disheveled and partially hanging in his face, the scientist slowly lifted his head to regard the sage.

"H-hello, Mr. Ghetsis," he greeted with a nervousness and uncertainty that was highly uncharacteristic of him; it was a sharp contrast to his nearly manic reaction nearly a day ago when he had initially been arrested with Ghetsis, along with some of the top Plasma grunts, Angie and Brad. As his uneasy amber eyes moved from his employer to the cell that surrounded them, his eyes only grew wider and he began to shake his head vehemently upon seeing the filth on the walls. His initial reaction was then followed by his body shaking and wringing of his hands behind his back as he continued to hopelessly demand banishment of the filth that surrounded them both to a far away place.

"No. No, no, no," he kept saying. "I can't be here, we can't be here Ghetsis, it's..." He trailed off, looking the least confident, the least sure of himself that the sage had ever seen him. The older man did not stop pacing, not even for a moment, only altering his course to circle around his scientist, regarding him from the height that held him seven inches above Colress, taking in his distress.

This was not a pristine lab where Colress had everything at his fingertips. There was nothing here that he could check or be in control of that could give him even the slightest bit of consultation. He had gotten comfortable where he had been in Plasma; from time to time, he had to do a few deeds that would figuratively get his hands dirty, but none of that compared to the harsh reality that surrounded him now. Colress wasn't sure if he would be able to hold back the urge to vomit, but no matter how tired and distressed he felt, he absolutely refused to take a seat in this hellhole.

"Colress, Colress, Dr. Colress," Ghetsis finally spoke, changing his trajectory that orbited around him to confront the blond, stepping closer and closer to him. The sage did not stop his pacing toward the other man and this forced Colress to take a few steps back, nearly tripping over himself if it wasn't for the threat of hitting the filthy wall behind him. It was only when that threat was far too close to touching his back that the scientist went rigid and refused to move back any further. Ghetsis only stopped when their torsos were pressed against one another and he had to tilt his head down to regard the other man.

"How unbecoming of you," he finally told him, reaching his good gloved hand up to tilt Colress' chin up. "You must not have felt this out of sorts for a good twenty-five years, correct?" Ghetsis asked rhetorically, knowingly, as his red eye scanned the other's face, noting the few cuts that marred his countenance; the sage trailed a finger up to brush just under them, golden bracelets around his wrist clinking delicately with the movement. "You didn't have those blemishes on your otherwise _lovely_ face before," he observed matter-of-factly in a tone that would normally make Colress want to quip back; but the blond remained silent as the man continued, "And those silly men and women out there surely did not voluntarily mark you this way out of sadism." Ghetsis shook his head. "Those are merely simple-minded people who misguidedly believe that joining the police force somehow betters society," he murmured deeply in an almost sing-song way, tapping him under the largest cut. "Know your environment, Colress. Your struggling is what hurt you; struggling so helplessly against them caused your poor skin to chafe against the fabric of their uniforms." His tone had shifted into something of amusement. "And now you can't even put your hands to good use," he nearly chuckled. "You must stop behaving this way; unless, of course, you enjoy being manhandled," the sage smirked sardonically.

The shorter man only shivered uncomfortably. "You said nothing bad would happen. I believed you. I want to get out of here, I, I _want_ to get _ou_t of here," he spoke in a shaky but quieter voice.

Ghetsis tilted his head in an exaggerated matter as he continued to regard his scientist. "Have I ever not followed through on my word? Haven't I always ever given you what you wanted? Even your more _inelegant_ requests have been very generously granted," he reminded him with a sudden harsh tug on the long blue strands that were normally situated proudly around the blond part of the scientist's hair. With force, Ghetsis tilted Colress' head as he spoke, the discomfort causing Colress to lean back dangerously close to the wall, hands restrained by his handcuffs which rendered him incapable of fighting the other man.

"You've-" Colress struggled in a distorted tone, thanks to his discomfort, "You've given me everything, yes. You never failed to-" he sputtered, "Never failed to follow through on your word." As he drew nearer toward the filthy wall, Colress' amber eyes continued to widen, his pupils nearly shrinking to the size of pinholes. "Ghetsis-!"

"Good," Ghetsis murmured in a much more soothing voice, pulling him away from the wall as he started to stroke the messy blond hair as if Colress was a pet rather than a colleague. "Now with that in mind, don't you think it's just a little _illogical_ of you to be behaving in such a fastidiously _whiny_ manner? This is not the Colress that I hired. You still work for me. Act like it."

Colress' found his face pathetically placed on the other's chest, struggling to find the proper words that would give his employer proper acknowledgement, but failed to articulate, keeping his gaze low. His back moved quickly as he recovered from his distress, breathing in and out against the other man's black cape.

"I do not want the most brilliant scintillating mind in Plasma to deteriorate under the perceived stress of a minor inconvenience." Though with his back-handed compliment, it went without saying that Ghetsis placed his own intelligence above that of the scientist's.

The blond only gave the other man a slight nod, keeping his current position and still unable to speak properly; he chose to say nothing at all.

Ghetsis let out a heavy sigh and shook his head petulantly. "This is nothing, Colress. _Nothing_. Until you've been confined in solitude for more than a year in a six-by-six cell, I don't want to hear another word out of you," he growled in a low tone, speaking from experience.

The scientist remained quiet against the sage until he decided it was best to close his eyes and attempt to ignore the walls that were smeared and splattered with years of goodness-knows-what. Finally, he dared to change the topic.

"What will happen to Angie and Brad?" The question was a distraction, but Colress was genuinely curious, primarily because it took him so long to get used to and trust those he had to work with that it was distressing to imaging having to readjust to anyone else—if he was ever going to be able to continue any research in the first place. Having a major chunk of credit stolen away from him after working on the Genesect project, seeing his name be the fifteenth that was credited on a list rather than being rightfully in the top three names was enough to make him wary of anyone coming near his research again. He had at least gotten used to Angie and Brad's presence and knew them well enough to ascertain that they were not a threat to his research.

"Those two?" Ghetsis asked, smirking. The redheaded grunts had been taken away from Colress and Ghetsis to a different facility earlier that day, having been deemed a lesser threat. The sage lowered his voice and whispered closer to his ear, "I'm sure the authorities will have a fun time opening up that truck when it arrives, only to find them gone."

Colress' head suddenly snapped up to look at the older man.

"It would have been a shame to condemn their bodies into wearing such unattractive and baggy uniforms," he continued. "Team Plasma's uniforms are the only attire that will ever suit them."

"Ghetsis," Colress breathed, looking desperately up at him for an answer. "How-? Do you mean that we can-?"

The longhaired man merely stepped back from the scientist finally, looking down upon him from the seven inches and fifteen years he had over him.

"Remember, Colress. There are three people who _don't exist_." His crimson gaze shifted from the scientist to the walls, where three white-haired men clad in ninja-like clothing emerged from seemingly nowhere.

Slowly, Ghetsis turned back toward the scientist haughtily with just the slightest toss of his hair. "I believe we've spent enough time here, Colress. Don't you?"

[[End]]


End file.
